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The 4th International Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics (WSS4) will be held at the University at Albany on April 17 and 18, 2008. Abstracts for presentations based on original sociolinguistic research analyzing Spanish data or data from contact situations between Spanish and other languages are requested for 20 minute presentations and poster sessions. Abstracts should be attached to an email message sent to the following address (wss4albany.edu); they must be anonymous and should not exceed 500 words in length. Papers and presentations can be delivered in Spanish or English. Please include the name and the affiliation of the author(s) in the body of the email message. Authors should indicate whether they would like to be considered for a presentation, poster, or both. The deadline for abstract submission is November 30, 2007. Notice of acceptance or rejection will be sent shortly thereafter. Selected papers will be published by Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Message 2: Dialects as a Testing Ground for Theories of Change

Date: 01-Oct-2007 From: Gunther De Vogelaer <gunther.devogelaerugent.be>Subject: Dialects as a Testing Ground for Theories of ChangeE-mail this message to a friend

Meeting Description Much theorizing in language change research is made without taking into account dialect data. However, we believe that the study of dialect variation has the potential to play a central role in the process of finding answers to the fundamental questions of theoretical historical linguistics. Unlike most cross-linguistic and diachronic data, dialect data are unusually high in resolution, and they seem to be superior data to build a theory of linguistic change on. In the present one-day workshop we invite contributions which relate a clearly formulated theoretical question of historical linguistic interest with a well-defined, solid empirical base. The following provides a (non-exhaustive) list of suggested research questions: - Which is the contribution of current linguistic theory for the explanation of spatial variation and variant spread? - Which is the contribution of dialect data for the further development of theories of linguistic change? - What are the driving forces of variant selection? Are these factors social or linguistic? - Is variation the result or the cause of change, or both?

We welcome papers dealing with all domains of grammar (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics), and we intend to cover a wide variety of languages. In particular, we encourage papers adopting a dialect geographical approach.

In recent years, historical linguists have highlighted the importance of grammatical variation and variant spread for our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of linguistic change. Many approaches distinguish between the emergence of novel variants vs. the selection of variants in the course of speakers' use (cf., e.g., Weinreich, Labov & Herzog's 1968 distinction between the 'actuation' and 'transition problem'). This is most obvious in evolutionary inspired approaches. But the perhaps most central ingredient of a model for linguistic change is still relatively little understood, and therefore controversial: Which factors are responsible for variant selection and spread? For instance, Croft (2000) assumes language-internal factors to be relevant only for the emergence of novel variants, but variant selection is claimed to be guided exclusively by social, extra-linguistic factors. Others (Haspelmath 1999, Seiler 2005, De Vogelaer 2006) have claimed that language-internal factors play a role in variant selection, too.

Much theorizing in language change research is made without taking into account dialect data. However, we believe that the study of dialect variation has the potential to play a central role in the process of finding answers to the fundamental questions of theoretical historical linguistics. Unlike most cross-linguistic and diachronic data, dialect data are unusually high in resolution. In addition, they seem to be superior data to build a theory of linguistic change on, for a couple of reasons: First, dialects are relatively free of standardization and therefore more tolerant against variant competition in grammar. Second, variants gradually spread not only on the temporal, but also on the spatial dimension. By a careful study of subtle dialect differences in space we therefore might expect to uncover the minimal differences of implementational steps that have taken place in the course of linguistic history. Dialectology indeed seems to be privileged to find answers for a number of questions raised by modern theories of linguistic change, and thus has a rare chance to play a leading role in the further development of linguistic theory, historical linguistics and language typology (see Kortmann 2002, Horvath 2004, and Filppula et al. 2005:vii for similar observations). Furthermore, we think it is the right time for dialectologists to engage in debates on variation and change since there are several large research projects on dialect variation being conducted in a number of European countries (see Barbiers, van der Ham, Koeneman & Lekakou, to appear, for an overview; cf. also the recently launched website http://www.dialectsyntax.org/).

In particular, we encourage papers adopting a dialect geographical approach. Additional questions that emerge when taking a dialect geographical approach have to do with the existence of transitional zones, where competing variants co-occur. This poses a potential problem for many models of grammar: what does the existence of transitional zones mean for our modeling of linguistic competence, i.e., can the linguistic competence of individuals living in transitional zones best be described in terms of competing grammars, the interaction of categorical rules or constraints, or do we need a probabilistic model? Other relevant questions include the following: - Do geolinguistic data provide evidence for and/or against particular models of change? - What can we conclude from the mechanisms of variant spread with regard to our understanding of linguistic competence? - Can we find a speaker-based explanation for the fact that some variants spread at the expense of others?

Publication Since it is our intention to publish a volume with papers from the section, we will prefer unpublished research over papers presenting data that have been published elsewhere.

Format Presentations are allotted 20 minutes plus 10 minutes for discussion. Abstracts should be as specific as possible, with a statement of topic, approach and conclusions, and may be at most 400 words (not including data and references, which may be placed on an optional second page). Please submit your abstract anonymously as an email attachment (only Microsoft Word or PDF formats) to Gunther De Vogelaer (gunther.devogelaerugent.be) or Guido Seiler (gseilerds.unizh.ch). The body text of the email message must contain the following information: (1) paper title (2) name(s) of author(s) (3) affiliation(s) of author(s) (4) address where notification of acceptance should be sent (5) phone number for each author (6) email address for each author (7) subfield (syntax, phonology, etc.)

Important Dates The submission deadline is December 1st, 2007. Notification of acceptance will be sent by January 20th, 2008.